Friday, July 8, 2011

Rhubarb Ice Cream at The Catnip Mouse Tearoom

Rhubarb Ice Cream

My sister is due to have a baby any day now. In fact, I need to get this post up soon, or she'll have the baby and I'll have to write this intro again. Anyway, it's become kind of a tradition with my mom and sisters to have lunch and ice cream to celebrate pregnancies (we aren't really a "shower" type of family…) so at the beginning of June, my sisters, mom, and my sister's friend Rebecca headed over to The Catnip Mouse Tearoom on Route 20 in beautiful Riverton, Connecticut (yes, Patrick, I now understand why your dream house is in Riverton) for sandwiches, to be followed by ice cream sundae making at my parents' house.

Our bellies stuffed from lunch, and the promise of ice cream sundaes at Mom and Dad's surely should have dissuaded us from ordering dessert at the tea house, right? Wrong! Not only did the owner have a chalkboard with her tempting desserts quite descriptively written out and staring at us the whole time during our lunch, but she also had a pretty persuasive waiter and a charming demeanor herself.

Cobbler and Cinnamon Ice Cream

Minutes later our table was piled with desserts to share. Cobbler and cinnamon ice cream, strawberry shortcake, and rhubarb ice cream. The ice creams were homemade and while all the desserts were quite wonderful and the cinnamon ice cream was definitely worth the calories, it was the rhubarb ice cream that blew me away. "This is the rhubarb ice cream I aspire to," I told the owner. And I meant it. Rhubarb sits in my freezer waiting (hoping) to be churned into something as creamy and perfectly tart-yet-sweet as the rhubarb ice cream we tasted at The Catnip Mouse. I keep putting it off because I am not sure I can achieve the perfection.

A couple of notes to add: The Catnip Mouse has no website and it also doesn't have super long hours, so call ahead (860-379-3745) to make sure she'll be open. If she's not, there don't seem to be too many other eating establishments in the immediate area.

[Scoopalicious is celebrating National Ice Cream month with a Post-A-Day throughout the month of July!]